| 释义 |
ball and chain, n. orig. U.S.
Brit. |ˌbɔːl (ə)n(d) ˈtʃeɪn|, U.S. |ˌbɔl (ə)n ˈtʃeɪn|, |ˌbɑl (ə)n ˈtʃeɪn|
Forms: 18– ball and chain, 19– ball an' chain, 19– ball n chain
[‹ ball n.1 + and conj.1 + chain n.]
1. A heavy metal ball secured by a chain to a person's leg to prevent escape or as a punishment. Cf. chain and ball at chain n. 2a. Now chiefly hist.
1818J. M. Glassell Court Minutes 28 Apr. in Message from President U.S. (1819) 164 The court sentenced the prisoner to receive fifty stripes on his bare back, and be confined with a ball and chain, at hard labour. 1835J. H. Ingraham South-West II. xxxviii. 189 The threat of the Calaboose, or the ‘ball and chain’. 1873J. H. Beadle Undevel. West vii. 132 Those who had fined and imprisoned culprits, or sent them to work with ball and chain. 1954J. D. Horan Confederate Agent xxx. 275 The first time he had broken out with a Negro slave, and, using a plank to support his ball and chain, had swum the three miles to Logger Key. 1998J. T. Power Lee's Miserables Prol. 8 Deserters who avoided a death penalty were given sentences ranging from three months' to five years' hard labor, most often with a ball and chain.
2. fig.
a. A restriction, a burden, esp. a financial one.
In quots. 1855, 1865 as part of an extended metaphor.
1855Defiance (Ohio) Democrat 10 Feb. 1/5 Wives..are less eager to enjoy their independence than to assert it. They do not cast off altogether the ball and chain of their matrimonial bonds, but show themselves so restless, that they keep their legal guardians in a state of constant suspicion and anxiety. 1865National Era 28 Aug. 138 We would as soon trust a young lamb to the tender mercies of a hungry wolf, as trust the rights of freemen to such hands. No! let them be bound hand and foot—let the Administration wear a ball and chain around its ankles. 1910H. N. Casson Hist. Telephone v. 179 It was he who set the agents free from the ball-and-chain of royalties, allowing them to pay instead a percentage of gross receipts. 1950E. Watkins Cautious Revol. xii. 220 {pstlg}300 a year out of a possible {pstlg}3,000 did not seem to them very much of a ball and chain. 1997Independent (Nexis) 4 Mar. 6 Technology can be a ball and chain. Some investment bankers are encouraged to check their voice-mail and e-mail every six hours.
b. slang (usu. depreciative). A man's wife or partner; (later also) a woman's husband or partner.
Cf. quot. 1855 2a.
1921Collier's 25 June 24/3 He deliberately attempts to commit suicide by askin' me ‘How's the ball and chain?’ meanin' my wife. 1950F. Brown Honeymoon in Hell in Galaxy Sci. Fiction Nov. 15 All of them are married except me. Why not send a man who's already got a ball and chain? 1988Toronto Star (Nexis) 13 Feb. f1 Say, for example, your ball and chain is into fishing. Tomorrow morning, when the wife or husband isn't looking, arrange worms on their pillow in the form of a heart. 1999S. Stewart Sharking ii. 34 You want fun and all you get is videos and take-away curries. Ave you got a ball n chain? |
